Soto Betawi
Jakarta's rich, coconut-milk beef soup with crispy fried shallots, tomato, and fresh lime — a creamy, fragrant Betawi classic served with rice or lontong.
8 recipes using tomatoes — Nasi goreng, rendang, satay — the flavours of 17,000 islands.
These 8 indonesian tomatoes recipes are ready in about 78 minutes on average, with 280–620 kcal per serving, and 25% are rated easy enough for a weeknight. Every recipe includes exact ingredient quantities, step-by-step instructions and full nutrition per serving.
Indonesian cooking is rich and aromatic, building deep spice pastes that slow-cook into coconut-laced curries and sweet-savoury grilled dishes. When Indonesian cooks work with tomatoes, they reach for shallots, garlic, candlenut, lemongrass, kecap manis and sambal, and the techniques that come up most across these recipes are frying, simmering, sautéing and baking.
Sweet-acidic fruit that forms the backbone of sauces, stews and salads across nearly every cuisine. In this collection it's most often cooked with shallots, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, red chiles, red chilies and palm sugar. The dishes here span indonesian classics ready in as little as 40 minutes to slower, more involved cooking that rewards a relaxed afternoon.
Reader favourite: Soto Betawi is the highest-rated dish in this collection at 4.8★ from 378 ratings.
Jakarta's rich, coconut-milk beef soup with crispy fried shallots, tomato, and fresh lime — a creamy, fragrant Betawi classic served with rice or lontong.
Fried eggplant halves topped with a fiery, tomato-rich balado sambal, a beloved spicy Indonesian vegetable dish from West Sumatra.
A spicy, tomato-rich Indonesian stir-fry of long beans and tempeh in a fragrant sambal sauce.
Whole fish marinated in tamarind and tomato, then grilled until charred and glazed with a sweet-sour sauce.
Fried eggplant baked in a fiery Indonesian tomato-chili sambal until soft and richly coated.
Rice bowl topped with Indonesian rica-rica chicken, simmered in a fiery tomato-chile spice paste.
Bell peppers stuffed with a spicy sambal beef and tomato filling, baked until tender and fragrant.
A festive spread of slow-braised beef rendang, coconut rice, sauteed peppers and fresh sambal.
Ripe tomatoes smell fragrant at the stem and give slightly to a gentle squeeze. For cooking out of season, good-quality tinned tomatoes often beat pale fresh ones.
Store at room temperature, never the fridge, which kills their flavour and texture. Score and blanch to slip off skins; salting slices draws out excess water for salads.
A low-calorie source of vitamin C, potassium and the antioxidant lycopene — which actually becomes more available when tomatoes are cooked.
Most of these 8 Indonesian tomatoes recipes are ready in around 78 minutes from start to finish. The quickest, Ikan Bakar Asam (Indonesian Tamarind-Glazed Grilled Fish), takes about 40 minutes, while the slower-cooked dishes run up to 180 minutes.
Across this collection they range from about 280 to 620 kcal per serving, averaging 472 kcal — Terong Balado (Indonesian Stuffed Eggplant with Spicy Sambal) is the lightest option at 280 kcal.
Sambal Goreng Kacang Panjang (Indonesian Spicy Long Bean and Tomato Stir-Fry) is a great place to start — it's rated easy and comes together in about 69 minutes. 25% of the recipes here are beginner-friendly.
In these recipes, tomatoes is most often paired with shallots, garlic, kaffir lime leaves, red chiles, red chilies and palm sugar. Indonesian kitchens also lean on shallots, garlic, candlenut, lemongrass, kecap manis and sambal.
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